Frozen Sun
by Olietta
Summary: Set seven years after new moon, After a series of life altering events- Bella finds a small amount of peace away from the world of the supernatural. Until she loses her job and ends up pulled back into the world she left behind. B/J eventually.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- this is the beginning of my Jasper/Bella story. I've been working on a timeline for this for the past few weeks and have pretty much put dear Bella on hold, sorry, but I fell in love with J/B fics and needed to have my own shot at one.**

**Lemmee know what ya'll think. And yes, if you must know the first scene was inspired by Up in the Air.**

"Miss Swan is it?" Asked the suited man across the table from me with a small smile,

"Yes that's correct." I didn't attempt to return the smile, I was the twenty-third person to be called into this office in the past three weeks, and there was never a different outcome.

"Now as I'm sure you have heard, due to the current economic crisis, this company has had to let go of an unfortunate number of valued employees" He looked up at me again with a grim expression.

I let out a sigh, I just wanted to get this over with, "And I'm one of those valued employees that you have decided to let go of, correct?"

"Ma'am, I encourage you to look at this as a new opportunity, a new lease on life. From here there are endless possibilities."

_Is this guy for real? _I thought to myself in disbelief. His speech dragged on for the next ten minutes, I wasn't really paying attention until he reached over the desk to hand me an envelope. "What's this for?" I asked.

"It's your redundancy package, miss Swan, six months pay." Redundancy huh? That was a new one- maybe I had been a valued employee.

I shoved the envelope in my pocket and listened as the man explained in more detail about all the new 'possibilities' I had now. Finally he stopped talking.

"Ok, can I go now?" I asked impatiently, he nodded and I went to pack up my cubicle.

It hadn't been the most exciting or rewarding job- general back office admin work; I had made no real friends here so although I had worked here for three years, it wasn't heartbreaking to leave- just irritating.

Later that evening, I found myself sitting in one of Charlie's old chairs, drinking my third glass of wine and feeling completely defeated. I let out a sigh and picked up the phone, I was about halfway through dialling Renee's number when I threw the phone across the room, like she would want to talk to me.

Redundant. An interesting term. Every person I had ever loved had made me completely redundant. Of course it began seven years ago with Edward leaving me in the forest. That little stunt had caused me two years of grief, it wasn't just him that day it was his entire family, the family I had grown to love. And Alice, my 'best friend' never even bothered to say good-bye. That was just the beginning of my redundancies. The second had been Jacob, although this was one that we both had anticipated as being a possibility- it still cut deep when he imprinted, on a boy of all things. So much for Sam's 'we imprint on the person most likely to keep the gene the strongest' theory.

Jake admittedly did try to ignore the pull of his imprint, but it was never going to happen. I was heartbroken but it wasn't as bad. It was a pain I could live with.

What happened next almost killed me.

Jake and I had just had our 'I'm really sorry but I'm gay' talk, and I was heading home when my cell buzzed. I was told that Charlie was in a critical condition and at hospital. He had been shot in the line of duty. He was dead before I even got to see him.

I ended up selling Charlie's house and moving to Jacksonville with Renee and Phil, I had already graduated but wasn't planning on collage, at least not straight away, I got a job serving coffee at a small café and after awhile life seemed almost liveable again.

Then the baby came. I don't know what it was about the situation that upset me the most; I never pictured myself as the jealous stepsister type. There was something about the situation that I couldn't handle. I had always been the mother figure in my relationship with Renee, she had been so childlike and frivolous that I never had the chance to be the kid I should have been. When I watched my mother with Andrea, I saw motherly love and a connection that she had never had with me. I'll be honest: it really hurt. I know that when she fallen pregnant with Charlie she wasn't planning on it at all, she never truly loved Charlie. Phil and Renee planned this child and when she was born she had their one hundred percent love and devotion. I adored Andrea as well, don't get me wrong, I'm not entirely a cold-hearted bitch. However, I couldn't fully cope with being a forth wheel to their perfect little family.

So after living with them for two years, I finally decided I couldn't handle it anymore. I had quite a lot of money saved from work plus the money I had made selling the house, it was time to set off on my own.

Renee had said she was sorry to see me go but I could tell that in some way she just wanted me out so she could end that chapter of her life and begin fresh with her new family, we hardly spoke since.

I bought a small apartment out of the way in Portland, Oregon. It was close enough to Washington that I could go back if I ever felt the need- and far enough away from Renee to let her move on.

So here I was, Bella Swan- living the life of a drunken spinster, all I needed was a few cats- I was on my own and found a small amount of peace in my solitude. The world of supernatural beings was no longer a part of who I was, although it definitely added to who I had become. I had no close friends but I did have a few acquaintances that seemed to enjoy being around me and laughed at my dark sarcasm. It wasn't much of a life- but it was mine.

The next morning, I woke with the worst hangover imaginable, I groaned as I lifted myself up to check the time. _CRAP crap crap! _I thought to myself- it was 11:30 I was incredibly late to work. I was in too much pain to wonder what had caused me to drink two bottles of red wine on a work night.

I quickly pulled my hair into a bun and put my work clothes on- no time to shower this morning, I headed into the lounge and I saw the envelope sitting on my coffee table. _Oh right, I was fired…_ with a sigh I sat myself down on the couch and opened up the envelope. Six months pay was a pretty impressive lump sum, 35 grand.

I was sitting on the couch for about half an hour before I made a decision that surprised even me; I was getting out of this town. Right now. Holiday.

When I was younger, Renee would often make snap decisions like this- maybe some of her did rub off on me after all, or maybe I was still a little drunk.

I quickly zoomed through my apartment grabbing everything I could fit into my small overnight bag- hell I was rich now may as well buy clothes as I go.

After throwing my things into the back of my truck- another old Chevy, they kinda grew on me, I headed back to the apartment building and pressed number three on the intercom, I knew this neighbour would be home.

"Hello?" she asked sounding just as hung over as I was,

"Hey bitch, look I got fired so I'm going on a spontaneous road trip, collect mail for me kay?"

"Kay skank, you know I'm reliable." I rolled my eyes, Sandra was a pretty good neighbour when she wasn't stoned- but that wasn't often. I knew I would more than likely return home to an overflowing mailbox.

"Thanks, see you when I run outta cash I guess." Sandra mumbled some kind of incoherent response before hanging up.

I hopped into my truck and began to drive, I had no idea where I was going and I didn't care. I would stop for food, gas, sleep and the occasional pretty view, I, Isabella Marie Swan, was completely free.


	2. Chapter 2

"Dammit!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, not that anyone could hear me out here.

I had been on the road for five days now and I was beginning to regret leaving Portland in the first place. If I hadn't left on this ridiculous 'vacation' I could be comfy on my couch with a half empty bottle of vodka and cold pizza watching reruns of Jerry Springer.

Instead I was sitting in the boiling sun beside my truck, on some out of the way road in Texas.

There was absolutely no phone reception and I hadn't seen a car in two hours.

Three nights ago, against my better judgement, I had pulled into a shady two star motel by the highway; I had woken the next morning to find that the spare tyre to my truck had been stolen. I had been putting off getting it replaced, telling myself I wasn't going to need it anyway.

I was kidding myself; with my recent stream of luck getting a new spare tyre should have been my top priority.

It was going to get dark soon and the chances of finding a car willing to stop between now and then were very slim. I grabbed my purse from the glove box and slammed the door; I followed that by kicking the flat tyre one last time, just for good measure.

I walked down the road for forty minutes, the sun was beginning to set and I was feeling very dehydrated.

I stepped on a shard of glass and winced, where had my shoes gone? I remembered wearing shoes earlier… I was clearly becoming delirious.

I was just about ready to give up, turn around, and sleep in my truck when I stumbled across a mailbox attached to a very long driveway. I picked up my pace and headed towards a small white dot in the distance that I could only assume was a house.

***

"Hello?" I yelled and knocked at the door; "Hello?" no one was home. The house was incredible. It was one of those wide one-story mansions that you could imagine celebrities escaped to when they needed to escape the paparazzi.

I peeked through an open window around the side; there was a light on in the hallway, but no sign of anyone home.

The sky was completely black now; if it wasn't for the motion sensor light on the porch I wouldn't be able to see anything but the stars.

With an exhausted sigh, I sat myself down on the swing chair on the porch, hoping that when the owners did arrive home, they wouldn't shoot me on site. This was Texas after all.

***

I woke up to the sound of a large black truck pulling up to the house.

A lone figure stepped out of the truck and walked up to me slowly. It was still dark out but his body almost seemed to glow in the moonlight. He was approximately 5'11 with straight blonde hair and he was lean but muscular.

What stood out the most however, was his unearthly gracefulness as he approached me. I didn't even need to see his eyes to tell what he was, no human was that graceful.

He was standing in front of me now and he spoke in a clear, musical southern drawl,

"Well howdy pretty lady, may I ask what brings you to my humble abode?"

I snickered, humble indeed.

He gave me a questioning look and I looked up to meet his gaze, that was when I noticed his crimson eyes, I wasn't sure what I had expected- the Cullen's diet wasn't exactly a common practise amongst their kind.

Surely I should have enough self-preservation left to be worried; instead my heart was skipping excitedly- they were real. I hadn't had solid proof of their existence in far too long.

I opened my mouth to answer him but instead of feeding him word vomit about my truck I burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.

Who else but me, Bella Monster-Magnet Swan, would look for refuge and stumble upon the house of a human drinking vampire, in the middle of bloody Texas? Damn, I had skill.

The vampire stared at me incredulously for a moment and waited for me to calm down a little before speaking again.

"Care to explain what's so funny ma'am?"

I took a deep breath and looked up at him, "Uh, nothing? I'm sorry to intrude. My truck got a flat tyre about twenty miles that way," I pointed in the general direction of my truck and continued, "I wasn't comfortable sleeping in my truck so I headed out here looking for help." He was studying me curiously I wasn't even sure if he had listened to my response. That was when the realisation of my impending death hit me. Along with that came the realisation that I was at peace with this, it was okay. I mean seriously, what was I living for? - No job, no family, hell I couldn't even keep my goldfish alive for more than a month. I had lived the fairytale with the promise of a happy ending, I had been given the greatest gift imaginable and I blew it by cutting my finger. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not suicidal. I'm realistic. After all I've been through, after living in a crazy supernatural world even for a small amount of time- I can't live a 'normal happy life.' So death by vampire was a good a way to go as any.

The vampire cracked up laughing, "Umm?"

"Crazy woman, I'm not going to eat you so don't go writing your will yet- jeez, emo much?"

_Huh? He seems to know that I know, crap he knew what I was thinking, so much my magical freak brain._

"Can you r…"

"No. I can't read your mind."

"But you just…"

He smirked, "I just know shit Bella." He shrugged it off. I gaped at him,

"I didn't tell you my name."

"Didn't I just explain this?" He rolled his eyes.

"So why aren't you going to eat me? I thought I was some rare blend." He laughed and I raised my eyebrow at him.

"We don't kill humans who don't deserve to die Bella."

"We?"

"My mate Charlotte and myself." He held out his hand to mine, "I'm Peter Whitlock." I shook his hand and he gave me a goofy grin, which reminded me of Emmett. "Come inside?" I followed Peter inside his house like the stupid lamb that I am and had a look around.

The interior was fairly simple, wooden floorboards and brick walls. The front hall led into a huge games room with the largest home theatre system I had ever laid eyes on. I took a quick glimpse inside and noticed a huge blue pool table sitting in an adjoining room. I couldn't help but laugh at the posters decorating the walls, Dracula, Interview with the vampire, From dusk till dawn. These vamps had a sense of humour.

"Like our decorations?" He asked with a smirk,

"They're uh… very fitting?" he laughed,

"Quite honestly, I think real vamps were give the raw end of the stick, fangs would be kick arse."

I nodded in agreement as Peter gave me a quick tour of the rest of the house. He stopped in front of a closed door; "You can stay in here tonight. It has an ensuite."

I stared at him, "Uh stay here?"

He shrugged, "I thought you didn't want to sleep in your truck_?" Yeah, I wasn't expecting to bunk with vampires as a backup plan though_. I opened my mouth to protest but he continued, "Seriously, we aren't going to eat you- trust me Bella, I know shit."

"I... do trust you, sort of? Even if you weren't a vampire I'd feel uncomfortable about your offer though. Actually I think I would feel less comfortable if you were human. I'm starting to wonder about my mental well-being - Why do I trust you? Oh god you aren't an empath are you? Ugh, sorry word vomit."

Apparently I had forgotten how to function. Somewhere in the back of my brain I heard the words _stupid lamb stupid lamb stupid lamb, _repeating themselves.

Peter chuckled at my question, "To answer your first question, no I'm not an empath but my brother is- I'm hoping you'll stay around long enough to meet him." He winked at me, "To answer your second question, some people just aren't designed for the human world Bella." _Stupid vampire know-it-alls and they're cryptic comments _I thought to myself. He chuckled again and turned away from me.

"I'll be back in a few hours, I have to make arrangements. Make yourself at home."

"Uh…Kay," I said feeling slightly confused. I watched him head back out the front door at vampire speed.

I opened the door to the guest room and stepped inside, there was a massive king sized, four-poster bed in the centre and an inbuilt wardrobe with a full-length mirror. In the corner of the room there was a huge leather reclining chair and a bookcase that looked well stocked. I gasped when I looked inside the ensuite; it was twice the size of the bedroom. It was tiled in black and white. There was a massive spa in the centre of the room and a shower to it's right. I was suddenly looking forward to taking full advantage of this bathroom.

I went back into the bedroom and plopped myself onto the bed, which I immediately fell in love with.

I lay back onto the bed and started thinking through what had happened.

Peter and his mate Charlotte were human drinkers that much were obvious. I hadn't met Charlotte yet but somehow I knew I'd like her. I thought back to what he had said about their diet. He had said that they didn't kill people who didn't deserve death.

Once upon a time I would have argued that they had no right to play god like that. The old Bella believed that everyone had at least some good in them. Life experiences had changed the way I felt about this. Vampires needed to feed, they were predators and we were their prey. To them it wasn't murder anymore than it would be murder for a cat to kill a mouse, well not entirely true because the cat wasn't a fancy undead mouse with venom which could turn other mouses into fancy mice, but I was trying to see reason. If these vampires had enough humanity in them to not want to kill innocents then, in my books, they were good.

There are millions of unsolved murders in this world, if a vampire chose to kill a murderer that would never have been caught by police, that vampire could be saving the lives of hundreds. Many humans were no worse than vampires.

After my shocking inner monologue in which I decided that I was okay with these vamps dietary choices I started to realise how awful I smelt after driving all day and trekking through the desert.

I got up and headed towards the bathroom and looked longingly at the magnificence that was the spa.

Sighing reluctantly I stripped off and started a shower instead, Peter had said he would be back in a couple of hours and knowing my luck he would decide to stroll in unannounced and find me asleep in the spa, a situation I definitely wanted to avoid. Though admittedly he was cute, which I suppose was a given, being a vampire and all. _No Bella! Attractive vampire has an undoubtedly attractive vampire mate with sharp teeth. _Definitely needed to stop that train of thought.

I quickly washed off all the grime I had accumulated wrapped myself up in a massive black towel that matched the awesome colour scheme of the bathroom.

I quickly dried myself off and ran my fingers through my hair until it was tangle-free enough to tie back into a messy ponytail. I groaned when I realised I had no fresh clothes. There was absolutely no way I was going to sleep in those jeans. I thanked whoever it was who designed these new knee length shirts that were all the craze as I pulled it back over my head to be used as a makeshift nightie.

Heading back into the room I felt my stomach growl and hissed at it, like I was going to find food in a vampire house. It growled at me again and I shrugged before looking for the kitchen. Peter said to make myself at home and apparently he 'just knew shit' so it was worth a look.

I found the kitchen attached to a large open room with three couches and nothing else, weird. Maybe they took the term 'sitting room' to seriously. I giggled.

To my surprise the kitchen had a fridge, microwave, oven and dishwasher. And sitting on the bench, in all its glory, was a pizza box! I squealed with delight as I opened the lid and revealed a large pepperoni pizza, my favourite. I didn't quite understand Peter's weird talent. But I liked it.

I pulled up a stool and ravished the pizza like an animal. I didn't bother heating it up, I was too hungry to care and hell, cold pizza is fuckawesome.

I groaned and looked sadly at the remaining slice. As badly as I wanted to finish it, I really would explode. I closed the box and opened the fridge. To my surprise I actually had difficulty making space. Apparently these vamps kept a supply of O negative in stock, I cracked up laughing, the old Bella would have fainted.

I closed the fridge with a chuckle.

I headed back to the guest room and tucked myself into the god of a bed. Peter had said he'd be a few hours, which was all well and good for him, but humans need sleep. As I lay there, drifting off, I felt a peace that I hadn't felt in a long time, and I remembered what Peter had said, _'some people just aren't designed for the human world, Bella.'_

I had a ten-minute chat with a strange vampire and already I felt as if I'd known him for years. I went back over our conversation again and something else he had said stood out. When he mentioned his empath brother he had said, _"I'm hoping you'll stay around long enough to meet him."_

Did he want me to stick around? That made no sense. I would be out of his hair as soon as I could get my truck sorted.

Why did the idea of leaving reopen a small pang of the hurt I'd locked away years ago? I knew the answer; it was just too crazy and unrealistic to feel this way. I felt like I was home.

WHATTHEHELL?

Eventually I fell into a peaceful sleep.

**A/N- I know it took forever to update sorry!**

**Thank you to all my reviewers so far, you make my day**

**Sorry for my awful grammar =(**


End file.
